Zcash mining generates $727 per megawatt-hour, surpassing Bitcoin by more than fourfold

Zcash miners are pulling in roughly $727 per megawatt-hour of electricity consumed, a figure that makes Bitcoin mining look like a hobby by comparison. Bitcoin’s Antminer S23 Pro generates approximately $162 per MWh, meaning Zcash is delivering more than four times the revenue on the same unit of power. The numbers, based on analysis from TheEnergyMag, also dwarf the high-performance computing colocation benchmark of around $222 per MWh. That’s the rate data centers typically earn from renting out rack space to AI and cloud workloads, the business that Bitcoin miners have been pivoting toward as a hedge. What’s driving the gap The short answer is price. ZEC has been trading in the $800 to $890 range, a dramatic rebound for a coin that spent years languishing well below its 2018 highs. One week in 2026 alone saw a 68.7% jump, the kind of move that transforms mining spreadsheets overnight. The hardware doing the heavy lifting is Bitmain’s Z15 Pro ASIC, purpose-built for the Equihash algorithm that secures Zcash’s proof-of-work network. Earlier in 2026, before ZEC’s price rally fully materialized, mining revenue estimates ranged between $373 and $769 per MWh. The current $727 figure s...